In early hours of a winter morning in the eighties, Alex Gilbey and his three mates are triggering home from a drunken night when they come across an almost dead young woman. Unable to save her, they instantly become the key suspects for the police (and many others in the community). The case is not solved, and twenty-five years later it is reopened as one of the first cases for the newly established cold case squad. How can you find the evidence and try to find a killer when that much time has passed?

This is not quite as gory as some of the other McDermid books, but has all the intrigue. If you like a good murder mystery with some top crime procedure type stuff, this is for you.